NESCAC coaches and players offer two conflicting opinions of the league's competitiveness.
The first is the "any given Saturday" mentality, centered on the league's parity and the idea that no NESCAC game is a given.
The second focuses on the prevalence of NESCAC dynasties, which are among the healthiest and most formidable in the nation. These dynasties, historically centered around Williams, generate frustration among lesser conference competitors who perennially come up short against these league powerhouses.
So which view is accurate?
Both. And neither. And all that might be changing.
Historically, while conference championships have ended up in the same trophy cases year after year, the regular season has often been peppered with upsets, keeping the league's best on their toes and extending hope to underdogs.
"There are some different circumstances that allow teams tremendous success in one sport, but it's pretty difficult to be great in everything," Middlebury Athletic Directory Russ Reilly said. "No team can be ruled out, whether they've won all of their games, half of their games, or none of their games. When they play you, you'd better be ready to play or you will get beat."
This sentiment, often espoused by coaches trying to avoid trap-game losses or pushing for a league upset, is beginning to garner empirical support. In recent seasons, regular-season upsets are increasing in frequency and the postseason hardware is beginning to even out around the league. The data from this year is telling:
Ten of the league's 11 schools have picked up a NESCAC title so far in 2005-2006, for the first time in league history - previously, that number had never exceeded six.
In recent weeks, the Tufts men's lacrosse team was stunned by unranked Colby on Apr. 15, and the Tufts baseball team, then-No. 9 in the nation, was swept in consecutive weekends by unranked Bowdoin and Middlebury.
Wesleyan, the league's seventh seed, made an unprecedented tournament run to take the men's soccer title this fall, and the Bates women's soccer team upset a Jumbo squad that advanced to the NCAA Final Four. Colby picked up its first-ever NESCAC tournament title, winning the volleyball crown and advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals.
"In years past, it was more Williams-Middlebury-Amherst, but you're starting to see other schools coming in," Tufts Athletic Director Bill Gehling said. "You'll see someone like Williams be good across the board, whereas schools like Trinity and Colby tend to pick their spots.
"Tufts is pretty strong across the board and getting stronger, and Middlebury is extremely strong in a select group of sports, but average in others," Gehling continued.
The jury is still out on whether this new diversity is a fluke or a sign of things to come. The league is certainly not lacking in dynasties, and it has traditionally been a top-heavy conference, with the same top programs running circles around league competition across the board.
Bowdoin has a stranglehold on women's basketball, Middlebury has won every men's and women's lacrosse title since the tournament's inception, and Trinity football has not lost a league game since Sept. 2002.
"Trinity football [has] been so good in recent years that it's created a problem in terms of a level playing field," Gehling said. "But that's been the exception rather than rule. The parity in terms of winning championships is really extraordinary, and individual programs are not as dominant as it appears."
Even when one team doesn't finish atop the leaderboard year after year, many championship titles merely trade off between a pair of warring rivals. Tufts and Williams have split all five NESCAC softball titles and Amherst and Williams have split all five NESCAC men's basketball title.
The obvious goliath, and universal love-to-hate rival of most Tufts teams, is Williams. Despite being less than half the size of Tufts, Williams has won nine of the last 10 Director's Cups, awarded annually to the best athletics school in each division, as determined by NCAA postseason appearances in select sports.
"At Williams - and I don't think this is unique to us - we attract high achievers and have a supportive culture where we value them as a students and athletes," Williams Athletic Director Harry Sheehy said. "To a certain extent, it's a case of success breeding success, but it's not easy to maintain excellence, and building it is really tough. The nature of small college athletics is somewhat cyclical, and if you go back 40 or 50 years, we've probably all ridden that wave."
While its dominance has taken on an almost mythical character, Williams has found the majority of its success in the individual qualifying sports of swimming, track, and cross country. And while the Ephs are solid in team sports, they are not untouchable, and have lost some of their edge in recent seasons.
"For the Director's Cup, teams get a disproportionate amount of points out of swimming and track - especially track, since you can get those in three different seasons," Gehling said. "Williams is good in team sports, but not dominant. [Beyond] swimming and track, they're really one of the pack. Every time we take the field against Williams, I think we've got a chance, especially in the team sports."
After winning back-to-back hoops titles in 2003 and 2004, three of four football titles from 1999 to 2002, and 13 straight men's tennis titles from 1993 to 2003, Williams has come back down to earth in team sports.
According to Gehling, changes in Williams' admissions policy may have played a role.
In 2002, Williams moved from a 72-"tip" system for athlete-admits to a 66-"tip" system. The move represented Williams' primary commitment to academics, as it was ranked as the No. 1 liberal arts college in the nation in 2004, 2005, and 2006, according to the U.S. News and World Report.
"I think they tightened things down a bit, and that might have been part of their success, that they were a little looser [in admissions] than others," Gehling said. "They're not any tighter now than we are, but they're coming back to reality, and I think that's had an impact, especially in their team sports."
Sheehy acknowledged the balance that the school faces between academics and athletics, but said that national prominence has never been an explicit goal at Williams, either in the athletics or admissions departments.
"I don't really know what the direct correlation between [tighter admissions standards] and winning fewer contests is, but we're maintaining a strength that I'm happy with," Sheehy said. "I'm pleased with our [four] championships so far this year, and at the end of the day, I'm concerned with whether our student-athletes have had a good experience and been challenged and improved, and had a team dynamic that was fun. The Director's Cup isn't a part of my everyday job here; what I really want are coaches that are dedicated and good teachers and run good programs.
"We never consider winning [to be] a birthright here; we work hard for it," Sheehy continued. "I would never want to cheapen what our coaches and athletes have done in the past. We'll continue to be competitive."
